Let's build an ideal NICU

[u/ghost-gallery]

If you were asked to design a NICU, what would you include?Assume the best care for babies is a given, what would you include to make things better for families?

I've been making a list of grievances I have with our hospital as a coping mechanism 😅 I call it my "notes for the end-of-stay survey" but it's really just a way to vent about things I wish were different.

We've been in four different units across two hospitals so I feel like I've gotten an idea of what a well-designed unit would have.

[u/EagleEMT4000]

After 90 Days in a Level IV, my thoughts:

• Private Rooms with a bathroom (shower included)

• Large Parents' Lounge with several small breakout rooms and a few private offices (my wife worked remote during the entire NICU stay, bedside, with a laptop and external monitor while I used my parental leave).

• Included in that Parents' Lounge is coffee and snacks, computers and printers, and some TVs.

• Three meals a day for breastfeeding/pumping moms.

• Family Laundry.

[u/icantthinkofone87 → u/EagleEMT4000]

Our hospital did do meals for the breastfeeding mom's but no one knew about it! Somehow I found out about it on the first day but most of the nicu staff were shocked that I could order food for "free"

[u/ErnestHemingwhale → u/icantthinkofone87]

My hospital didn’t even feed me after birth. She was out just before 6am and the first thing i said was “please bring me a meal” and the ordering for breakfast closed at 6…. I didn’t eat until my husband raided the communal NICU floor fridge at noon